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Maximillion J. Pegasus, known as Pegasus J. Crawford in the Japanese version is a character in the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga. This is the original depiction of Pegasus, created by Kazuki Takahashi. With the exception of two occasions where he is called Pegasus J. Crawford,[2][3] he is one of the few human characters to not use his original Japanese name in the English manga.

Pegasus is depicted as a well-mannered, yet overly dramatic man obsessed with cartoons, concealing the appearance of a ruthless businessman and gamer, yet man of his word. His motives stem from the death of his lover, Cyndia. His fascination with Egyptian beliefs in life after death led to him obtaining the Millennium Eye and creating the Duel Monsters card game. He attempted to take control of KaibaCorp to use their Solid Vision technology to create a lifelike version of Cyndia. The takeover plan involved him hosting the Duelist Kingdom tournament to defeat Yugi Mutou. However his defeat against Yugi led to the failure of his plan and his murder at the hands of Dark Bakura.

Yu-Gi-Oh! R explores more of Pegasus' life; particularly how he had taken care of a number of orphans. One of them, Yako Tenma, blamed Yugi for Pegasus' death and arranged Project R.A. in an attempt to resurrect him.

Contents

Biography

Some of the following events are from Yu-Gi-Oh! R, which is of disputed canon.

Childhood and Cyndia

Pegasus' father was a wealthy man, who managed casinos in Las Vegas.[4] While Pegasus was growing up, he watched Funny Rabbit every Saturday morning and considered its characters to be his best friends at the time.[5]

Around the age of 10, while attending a social function, he met Cyndia, the daughter of one of his father's friends. The two fell in love and spent a lot of time together. They would often talk about their dreams, with Pegasus aspiring to be an artist who would travel around the world. They swore to spend their lives together. Shortly after Pegasus turned 17, Cyndia got sick and died also at the age of 17, causing Pegasus to fall into a state of depression.[4]

Acquiring the Millennium Eye

Shortly after Cyndia's death, Pegasus became interested in the ancient Egyptian beliefs in life after death and traveled to Egypt to learn more. He visited the Valley of the Kings. Inside the village, Kul Elna, he saw a thief about to be prosecuted for stealing the Millennium Ring. Fearing for the thief's safety, Pegasus offered to buy the Ring with all the money he had in exchange for the man being let go. However Shadi appeared and advised him not to flaunt his wealth in that area. He explained that the man was to be punished for the theft and the value of the Ring was irrelevant, but priceless. Shadi warned Pegasus that thieves were a common sight in the village, suggested that he leave and added that it was not a place where the sadness of losing a lost one is healed.[4]

Pegasus, briefly reunited with Cyndia.

Pegasus was surprised that Shadi seemed to have read his mind, so he secretly followed him and the other prosecutors. They went to an underground temple where they put the thief on trial to see if he was chosen by the Ring. The ring was put on him, which resulted in his body burning up, killing him. Pegasus was caught spying on the ritual and taken down to Shadi. He begged to be let go and promised not to tell anyone what he had seen. However he was only permitted to leave if he became bearer of a Millennium Item, so he was to be tested by the Millennium Eye. If he were deemed worthy, Shadi said he would be granted his dearest wish. The other men cut out Pegasus left eye and inserted the Millennium Eye in its socket. Pegasus passed the test and for a moment was embraced by an apparition of Cyndia.[4]

At some point, Pegasus painted portraits of Shadi and Cyndia, which he hung up in his castle, but did not like to talk about them.[6]

Duel Monsters work

While in the Valley of the Kings, Pegasus also heard legends of Egyptian magicians, who had power to seal monsters in stone tablets and summon them to fight battles. He created the card game Duel Monsters as a means of bringing these ancient games to the modern world.[7] Pegasus founded the company Industrial Illusions and established himself as a young genius game designer on creating Duel Monsters,[8] Among the cards he created were the three Egyptian Gods, though he was unable to translate the Hieratic Text that referred to "The Sun Dragon Ra" specifically, and he was forced to print it on the card in an ink only visible under the light emitted from "Ra" when Summoned (possibly inferring that he created them after the development of the Solid Vision technology). He regarded their creation as his greatest mistake as three cards gained power as if the gods dwelled within them, making them powerful weapons. He tried to destroy the God Cards, but could not bring himself to do it, so he had the Egyptian supreme council of antiquities bury the cards in different locations in the Valley of the Kings.[9] Pegasus also designed the Wicked Gods, but refrained from creating them for the same reason he regretted creating the Egyptian Gods.[10]

Duel Monsters became a huge success in the United States, with players said to be in excess of twenty million and many tournaments hosted with large prizes.[11] He received an offer from KaibaCorp to develop Virtual Simulation Battle Boxes together, to enhance the experience of playing Duel Monsters.[8]

The United States top Card Professor, Keith Howard challenged Pegasus to a Duel. Pegasus was not interested at first, but accepted under the conditions that the prize was to be one million dollars, the Duel was to take place in a stadium capable of holding fifty thousand people and broadcast nationwide with earnings split between sponsors and TV stations. The Duel was to take place in the New York Duel Stadium. Before it began, Pegasus took the time to teach some children present how to play Duel Monsters. He gave one of the children, Tom, a Deck of cards as he could not afford to build a good one of his own. When the Duel began, Pegasus performed a Mind Scan on Keith and wrote instructions on a piece of paper. He then called Tom to the Duel and gave him the paper, telling him to follow the instructions and he would win. In the meantime, Pegasus sat with his guest, Seto Kaiba from KaibaCorp and accepted his offer to develop the Battle Boxes. When Tom defeated Keith, Pegasus took him to the camera and advertised Duel Monsters as a game where even a beginner can beat a strong champion, effectively turning the Duel into a commercial.[11]

Pegasus grew fond of the Solid Vision technology KaibaCorp was developing. It was capable of creating projections that were more lifelike than simple holograms. He hoped to takeover KaibaCorp, so he could have the technology and use it to create a lifelike projection of Cyndia.[12] He got a number of his employees work at KaibaCorp as spies,[13] including Saurwatari.[8]

Pegasus took in a number of orphans, including Yako Tenma, Gekko Tenma, Depre Scott and Richie Merced, as protégés to be potential heirs to Industrial Illusions, while raising the others to be professional gamers and designers.

Duelist Kingdom

When Seto Kaiba was left in a coma after losing to Yugi Mutou in Death-T, KaibaCorp shares began to plummet. With the company in a bad state and Kaiba out of action, Pegasus seized the chance try and take over it. He made a deal with the company's leading stock holders, the Big Five, in which he could buy the position of chief executive if he defeated Yugi Mutou in an official game of Duel Monsters in order to rebuild the company's reputation.[8]

To defeat Yugi Mutou, Pegasus organized the Duelist KingdomDuel Monsters tournament.[8] It was to place on his island, which shared its name, Duelist Kingdom. Participants were given 2 Star Chips to wager in Duels in the battle royal format preliminary stages.[14] The Duels were to take place in Battle Boxes scattered across the island, granting different Field Power Sources based on their location.[15] Duelists who acquire 10 Star Chips would earn the right to enter his castle.[14] Pegasus also hired Player Killers to try and defeat Yugi in the preliminary stage[16] and win Star Chips from the regular participants, so that no more than four finalists could enter the castle.[17] The finalists would participate in a knockout stage with the winner facing Pegasus.[18] If they could defeat him, they would win $200,000 US.[19]

When Yugi played the videotape Pegasus sent him, Pegasus appeared on screen and, despite claiming to be a prerecording, challenged him to a Duel to test his skill. Using his mind reading skills, Pegasus predicted and countered Yugi's moves. Upon realizing the Duel was a Shadow Game, Dark Yugi took over from Yugi.[21] Dark Yugi suspected the video contained subliminal messages telling him what cards to play, allowing Pegasus to prerecord moves to respond perfectly. Dark Yugi ignored his subconscious decision for one move, which resulted in Pegasus counteracting with a weaker monster.[22] However the video footage showed Pegasus' monster being destroyed and Pegasus claimed to have known that would happen and took the hit on purpose. With limited footage left on the tape, Pegasus imposed a 15 minute time limit. In the last few seconds, Dark Yugi's victory was apparent, but the time ran out, making Pegasus win due to having higher Life Points. As Dark Yugi's Penalty Game and a means of ensuring he would take part in Duelist Kingdom, Pegasus sealed the soul of Sugoroku Mutou in the videotape. He then showed Dark Yugi the Millennium Eye, explaining he had used it to read his mind.[23]

Two nights before the tournament, the Big Five kidnapped Mokuba Kaiba and brought him to Pegasus' island as he had swallowed the key to a safe with documents they needed to complete their deal with Pegasus.[8]

The day before the tournament, Pegasus discussed his plans with Yako Tenma.[10]

When the tournament began, Pegasus appeared before the participants and explained some of the tournament rules.[14] Some time after Mokuba had been recaptured after an escape, Pegasus stripped Mokuba's soul from his body and sealed it in a "Soul Prison" card.[24] During the night of the first day, Pegasus heard word that Kaiba had woken from his coma and was coming towards the island. He was confident Kaiba would not make it to the island, as he had two spies on the same helicopter. However Kaiba managed to overpower them.[13] When Kaiba arrived on the island, he was refused permission to speak to Pegasus, so he took his adviser, Croquet, hostage. After receiving word that Yugi had collected ten Star Chips, Pegasus made contact with Kaiba. He agreed to return Mokuba to Kaiba under the condition that Yugi first defeat Yugi in a Duel. He got Saruwatari to give Kaiba five Star Chips Mokuba had stolen and instructed Kaiba to wager them in his Duel against Yugi.[25] Kaiba won the Duel and was able to use his ten Star Chips to enter the castle to face Pegasus.[26]

The four finalists, Keith Howard, Mai Kujaku, Yugi and Katsuya Jonouchi qualified in time to watch the Duel between Kaiba and Pegasus.[27] Kaiba insisted that they Duel using his Duel Disks,[24] something he had designed as a means of combating Pegasus' mind reading.[28] However Pegasus thought it would be unwise to fight on his opponent's terms, so he complained about the degree of fitness needed to operate one and agreed to use the Duel Disks only if Mokuba's soulless body would act as a proxy and throw his Duel Disk. Kaiba refused to fight his brother, so he agreed to Duel Pegasus without the use of Duel Disks.[24]

By reading Kaiba's mind, Pegasus knew when he was about to Summon "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" and used the card "Prophecy" to easily take the card from him.[24] Pegasus also foresaw Kaiba's "Saggi the Dark Clown" and "Crush Card" combo and used "Negative Energy" to make "Saggi" too strong to hold the virus, killing the virus. Pegasus then used "Toon World" to turn his monsters, including the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" he took, into cartoon versions of themselves, capable of dodging attacks. To avoid having his mind read, Kaiba discarded his hand and played cards straight from the top of his Deck, which did not make any major difference, as Pegasus had read Kaiba's subconscious memorization of his own Deck to produce counter-strategies for any possible incoming threats.[5] Kaiba managed to defeat the cartoon version of "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" with a combination of "Shadow Spell" and another "Blue-Eyes White Dragon". However, Pegasus captured the new "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" in "Dragon Capture Jar". Kaiba tried to attack "Dragon Piper" to stop it Summoning "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" from the jar, but Pegasus used "Doppelganger" to copy Kaiba's "Crush Card", infecting "Dragon Piper". Once the piper was destroyed, Kaiba's Deck was infected, killing everything with more than 1500 ATK. Now only able to revive "Saggi the Dark Clown", Kaiba was easily finished off.[29] Pegasus then inflicted the "Mind Card" Penalty Game on Kaiba, trapping his soul in another "Soul Prison" card.[18]

Pegasus arranged a dinner party for the tournament finalists[18] and placed Millennium Eye replicas in their soup. Each eye had a slip of paper with a letter on it to determine the match up for the finals. When the finalists discovered the eyes in their soup, Pegasus appeared on a screen and explained the rules of the bingo game, which resulted in Yugi and Mai being paired up for the first semi final and Keith and Jonouchi being paired up for the second.[6]

On the day of the finals, Pegasus showed the finalists the prize money and had it explained that they would need to defeat him to get it. He watched the Duel between Dark Yugi and Mai[19] and was impressed by the flawlessness of Mai's "Harpy" Deck.[30] By reading their thoughts, he confirmed Mai's accusation that Dark Yugi was distracted by the thought of Dueling him,[31] was able to detect Dark Yugi's change in spirit[32] and predict Mai's surrender.[33]

As Pegasus watched Keith and Jonouchi's Duel, he noted how Jonouchi was not even close to Keith in terms of experience, strategy or Deck strength and wondered how Jonouchi had turned the tables in his favor. He read their minds, finding despair and revenge in Keith's and hope and trust in Jonouchi's. He described the Duel as a fight between light and darkness.[34] He also spotted Keith cheating during the Duel.[35]

Aware of how Yugi and Jonouchi planned on having Dark Yugi face Pegasus and give the prize money to Jonouchi, Pegasus deemed a final Duel between Yugi and Jonouchi pointless and had the Duel stage prepared for his Duel with Yugi. Before entering the Duel stage, he was confronted by Keith, who held out a knife and demanded that he be given the prize money. Pegasus called Keith out on cheating in his last Duel and inflicted the "Hand Gun" Penalty Game on him, causing his hand to turn into a gun and shot himself in the head.[35]

Before they Dueled, Dark Yugi said that if he won he wanted Pegasus to release the souls of Sugoroku, Mokuba and Kaiba. Pegasus thought it was odd that Yugi wanted to save Kaiba, but accepted the condition. He was impressed that Dark Yugi accepted the Duel, knowing his soul would be trapped in a card if he lost. Croquet then informed Pegasus that having scanned Mokuba they would be able to make a duplicate of the key he swallowed shortly, meaning defeating the Yugis was the last thing Pegasus needed to do to take control of KaibaCorp.[36]

Like in their last Duel, Pegasus was able to predict and appropriately prepare for Dark Yugi's moves. He also used "Toon World" to convert his monsters into cartoon versions.[37] However Yugi established a Mind Shuffle strategy, wherein he and Dark Yugi would switch control between moves without telling each other what they were planning or what cards they played face-down. This way, Pegasus could not read the mind of whichever Yugi made the last move. This made him unable to find which of the "Magical Hats" "Dark Magician" was under. Instead he used "Magic Neutralizing Force" to remove the hats and attacked "Dark Magician". However Yugi used "Living Arrow" to transfer the effect of "Magic Neutralizing Force" to Pegasus, removing the effect of "Toon World" and then used "Mirror Force" to reflect the attack back at Pegasus' monsters. Without the effect of "Toon World", the monsters could not dodge the attack and were destroyed.[38]

Pegasus switched the nature of the Duel to a Shadow Game, making it difficult for normal mortals to physically endure. He used his eye-themed cards from that point and got "Relinquished" to absorb the Yugis' "Dark Magician" and "Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress". The pressure of the Shadow Game proved too much for Yugi, who collapsed on playing his final card face-down.[7] Pegasus Summoned "Jigen Bakudan", which would self-destruct and destroy his monsters, including those absorbed by "Relinquished", depleting Dark Yugi's remaining Life Points. He tried to use his Mind Scan when Dark Yugi drew his next card. However he was blocked by an apparition of Yugi's friends. Dark Yugi used "Mystic Box" to swap the positions of his absorbed "Dark Magician" and Pegasus unabsorbed "Jigen Bakudan". He used "Brain Control" to take control of "Relinquished" with its absorbed monsters and then used Yugi's last card "Dark Magic Ritual" to sacrifice "Jigen Bakudan" and "Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress" to Summon "Magician of Black Chaos".[39]

Pegasus was surprised to see that someone actually uses "Kuriboh" when Dark Yugi Summoned it. When "Relinquished" returned to his control, he fused it with "Thousand-Eyes Idol" to create "Thousand-Eyes Restrict". "Thousand-Eyes Restrict" paralyzed Dark Yugi's monsters and attempted to absorb "Magician of Black Chaos". However Dark Yugi used "Multiply" to create a swarm of "Kuribohs", which instead got absorbed. The effect of "Kuriboh" caused it to explode on impart, blinding each of the eyes. This freed "Magician of Black Chaos" from its paralysis, allowing it to attack and destroy "Thousand-Eyes Restrict", defeating Pegasus.[40]

Pegasus' death.

With his defeat, Pegasus unable to take control of KaibaCorp. In keeping him promise, he freed the souls of Sugoroku and the two Kaibas and assured Dark Yugi he would get his prize money. He was impressed by the power of the Millennium Puzzle and asked if Dark Yugi was not aware of the evil intelligence possessed by the Millennium Items. He then told Dark Yugi the story of how he lost Cyndia and acquired the Millennium Eye. He learned Shadi's name from Yugi as he told the story.[4] Having come from a Millennium Item and not wanting to be regarded as an evil intelligence, Dark Yugi refrained from inflicting a Penalty Game on Pegasus.[12]

Before Yugi, his friends and the Kaiba's left the island, Pegasus was confronted by Dark Bakura, who pulled the Millennium Eye out of his socket, killing him. He left Pegasus with one of the replica Millennium Eyes from the soup, telling him to take it with him to Hell.[12]

Post death

Pegasus' brief appearance in R.

Pegasus' heir, Yako Tenma, found Pegasus' blood splattered over the table where he had been killed. He wept his death and was told by Croquet that Yugi Mutou was responsible.[10] Yako took over as president of Industrial Illusions sometime afterwards and began developing Project R.A. in an attempt to revive Pegasus.

A few months after Pegasus' death, Esper Roba who pretended to have ESP, claimed that he was using his powers to communicate with the spirit of Pegasus.[3]

Some time after the Battle City tournament, Yako forced Yugi to partake in Project R.A. by kidnapping Anzu Mazaki. His primary goal was to sacrifice Anzu's body to house Pegasus' soul. Pegasus' spirit was temporarily revived, but Seto Kaiba was able to stop the Duel Ring server, and Pegasus' spirit vanished, saving Anzu's life and infuriating Yako. During the final stages of the Duel between Dark Yugi and Yako, when "The God of the Obelisk" clashed with "The Wicked Avatar", Yako caught a glimpse of Pegasus' spirit once more, but Pegasus' did not so much as turn around to face Yako before vanishing a final time.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Deck

Pegasus uses a Deck containing cards he created exclusively for himself. These include "Toon World", which turns all his monsters into near invulnerable cartoon versions of themselves and a number of eye-themed cards, which paralyze and absorb opposing monsters. He utilizes "Dragon Capture Jar" and "Dragon Piper" in combination to overcome Seto Kaiba's "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" cards.

He makes use of his Millennium Eye's mind reading powers to predict and counter opponents' strategies and exploit cards like "Prophecy", which usually require guess work.